Tomorrow’s Voices Autism Awareness Events
Tomorrow’s Voices Autism Centre has been busy over the last couple of weeks with various activities raising awareness of Autism and Developmental Disabilities. On Saturday September 29th more than 250 children and adults turned out at Southampton Rangers Sports Club, in spite of the weather, to attend the 2nd Annual Bounce for Autism Fun Day.
The day was designed to help Tomorrow’s Voices raise awareness of Autism while celebrating those young people and adults who live successfully every day with the disorder. The event also helped to raise funds for Tomorrow’s Voices’ much-needed centre and services.
For a second year in a row, major sponsor Funtyme Entertainment generously donated all of their bouncy castles in support of Bounce for Autism. Supporting sponsors were D&J Construction, The MarketPlace, BELCO, Dr. Sylvanus Nawab of Edgewood Pediatrics, Subzero Air Conditioning, Barritt’s and Diamond Party Rentals. There were also some sponsors who wished to remain anonymous.
Bounce for Autism was the brainchild of Chairwoman Thea Furbert. She wanted to create a day filled with fun events all tied to bouncing as many children with Autism love to bounce. Minister of Health, Minister Zane DeSilva and his wife were on hand to lend their support to the event and the work done by Tomorrow’s Voices for Autism.
Two weeks later, on Saturday October 13th, Tomorrow’s Voices hosted the “Anything is Possible!” seminar at The Cathedral Hall. This public event saw, International Speaker Mr. Sean Barron and his girlfriend, Ms. Barbara Protopapa, both adults with Autism, speak about their lives and living with the disorder.
The public often hears about children with special needs and challenges, but it rarely hears about what happens when these children grow up and what their futures could be like. Tomorrow’s Voices thought this was an important enough topic to discuss and as such reached out to Mr. Barron and Ms. Protopapa.
The adult couple consider themselves recovered from Autism because it no longer adversely affects their day-to-day lives. They shared their compelling and inspiring stories of navigating through childhood, adolescence and teenage years with Autism to become adults essentially “healed” from the condition.
Today Mr. Barron works as a news reporter for his local Ohio paper, The Vindicator, and leads a very happy life both from a professional and personal standpoint.
He also co-authored two books about autism – There’s a Boy in Here: Emerging from the Bonds of Autism, written with his mother, Judy Barron and with Temple Grandin he co-authored Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships: Decoding Social Mysteries Through the Unique Perspectives of Autism. He is currently writing a book on the Civil Rights Movement.
Ms. Protopapa considers herself fully functioning and is currently employed at the Rich Center for Autism, which is the local autism centre in her Ohio community.
Chairwoman of Tomorrow’s Voices, Ms. Thea Furbert, stated that “Tomorrow’s Voices is not only dedicated to providing hands on services and support to children with Autism and Developmental Disabilities as well as their families, it is also committed to raising awareness and educating the public on these conditions. It is through ongoing events such as these that we are able to accomplish these goals.”
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